Running for a Fourth Term as  President of the PGI

This post is here for those members of the PGI that may not know me and want to learn
about my background and a bit of my personal biography.  They are being directed here from
my article in the PGI Bulletin No. 216.  This is an article announcing to the membership that I am running for President of the Pyrotechnics Guild International Board of Directors.  www.pgi.org   

PGI Involvement:

Elected to the PGI Board of Directors as President for 3 terms.
Elected to the PGI Board of Directors as 1^st Vice-President for 3 terms.
An active safety team member for 22 years including setup, and operation of the B line, assistant B line boss, and B line boss.
A contributing author of the PGI Display Operators manual.
A certified PGI Display Operator and Certified Operator Instructor assisting in the training of display operator students at PGI conventions.
Developed and presented seminars on Pyrotechnic Chemistry at PGI conventions for more than fifteen (20) years
Member of the Manufacturing Committee for the APA - American Pyrotechnic Association.
Board member of the APSEF American Pyrotechnic Safety and Education Foundation

Professional Information:

Work at Purdue University (33 years) as a Chemist in the Chemistry Department
Developed and presented workshops to college and high school educators by using pyrotechnics to teach chemistry at various locations in both the United States and Canada
Lead Operator for Ramsey Pyrotechnics (27) years
Hold a Type 20- Manufacturing License
Secured EX numbers for 4 colors of pyrotechnic lance

Personal Information

I am 68 years old and married 45 years to my best friend Lana Smith
Two grown children and two grandchildren
Home Town, Lafayette, Indiana
Former Town Council president 10 years Mulberry, Indiana
Deacon at my local church for 40-plus years  https://www.faithlafayette.org/

Jury Duty - Antithesis of 'Twelve Angry Men'

First an update on my tenure on the PGI board of directors which leads into this current blog post.

My term expired this year so I was up for election and won another term.  I did have a much younger person run against me which was both encouraging and challenging.  I am really encouraging younger members of our organization to get involved and one of the ways to step up is by running for a board position.

While at our annual convention I was up for Jury Duty and actually got notified to report,
fortunately, post convention. On Tuesday Aug 25 I reported and was selected to be on a 12
 person jury.  It was a criminal case involving battery by a woman on her boyfriend.

This jury unlike 'Twelve Angry Men' was 6 males and 6 females purposely drawn up this way
due to the matter we would be considering.  I was also very pleased to see the diversity in age, background and work status in our group. The youngest member just made the minimum of 18 and was finishing up high school on-line. 
He did a stellar job as a member of the jury and was enjoyable to be around.  One of our
oldest jurors was in his seventies so a wide age range among us.

Right from the start we clicked as a group- partially due to daily challenges.  Just as the trial
began one member of the jury raised his hand to tell the Judge he was about to be sick.  He
felt both physically ill and mentally he was very chagrin to hold things up for all of us.  The
Judge was compassionate and gave him time to leave and then took a recess.  The juror
hung in there and we eventually dismissed early that day to give him time to recuperate. 
He was very apologetic to all of us and we rallied around him to not worry about it and get
better.  He was fine rest of the trial and gave and took a fair amount of teasing about his not
feeling well.  We already had a good number of times we were sent out of the courtroom
which made things seems to go slower. As we groused about the delays and how long it was
taking it was mentioned that  if was not for all the commercials this program would not be
too bad.  We laughed together on this one and continued as an entire group, by the judge's
directions, to discuss evidence that had been presented.

Jurors are not to talk to anyone about the case nor let anyone talk to them. On one of our
trips back to the jury room a young man disguised a statement to several of the jury.  As he
fake coughed he said. "Put her in jail".  Those involved informed the bailiff and he then told
the judge.  Through use of security cameras the  jurors that heard this were able to identify
this person.  We then again went for a recess and the judge worked on this matter. 
Interesting now how a recess is not nearly as positive a concept as when I was in elementary school.

I was given the nod to be the foreperson as this was my third time on a jury.  We deliberated about an hour and through a hearty but very respectful discussion time reached our verdicts.  Guilty on two misdemeanor charges and not guilty on a felony charge for battery. The felony charge required that the prosecution prove the victim was disfigured, permanently injured, or seriously impaired  for a length of time post the battery.   We did not see evidence that caused us to find her guilty on this charge.

At the conclusion of the trail we were dismissed and the judge came by along with the prosecutor and defense attorney.  This was to answer any questions we had and accept any input from us.  The judge then let us know the defendant was now returning to prison for other charges she had already been found guilty of in past trials.  He also now knew the identity of the young man who tried to influence the jury and sadly it was the defendant's son who was angry with his mother.

Now find myself catching up from 3 days away from work but my staff did a great job keeping
things going so will not be too difficult. Probably will never work again with any of my fellow
jury members but I will remember our time together and know we exercised our civic duty
and thus allowed the defendant to remain innocent until found guilty by a jury of her peers.

Running for a third term as 1st Vice President

This post is here for those members of the PGI that may not know me and want to learn
about my background and bit of my personal biography.  They are being directed here from
my article about running for a third term in my current position as 1st Vice President
of the Pyrotechnics Guild International Board of Directors.

PGI Involvement:

I have been an active member of the PGI for twenty three (23) years.

During the past ten (10) years, I have held a position on the safety team, running the B-Line, as B-Line Boss and now assisting new B-line Boss.

Held office on the PGI Board of Directors as 1st Vice-President for three and half (3.5) years

Contributing author for PGI Display Operators manual

Certified PGI Display Operator and Certified Operator Trainer

Helped for many years on the Display Operators course at PGI conventions

Presented seminars on Pyrotechnic Chemistry at the conventions for over ten(10) years

Professional and Personal Information:

Work- Purdue University past twenty five (25) years as a Chemist in the Chemistry Department

Presented workshops to college and high school teachers on using pyrotechnics to teach chemistry in various locations of the United States and Canada

Lead Operator for Ramsey Pyrotechnics for past twenty-one (21) years

Hold a Type 20- Manufacturing License

I am 60 years old and married thirty seven (37) years to my best friend Lana Smith

Two grown children and two grandchildren

Home Town, Mulberry, Indiana

Former Town council president ten (10) years  Mulberry, Indiana

Deacon at local church for thirty (30) years

The Chemist who learned Pyro

On September 1, 1989 I began my employment at Purdue University. My official title on the contract is Director of Lecture Demonstrations. I enjoy telling that to people when they ask what I do because 99.5 percent still have no idea after hearing the title. As is the case many times, job's titles really are not that significant or explanatory. This job has several duties but a couple  key ones are in preparation of  live chemistry demonstrations for the professors to demonstrate in their lectures.
My interest in fireworks and pyrotechnics began as I entered Junior High School.
I always really enjoyed firework displays, read about and watched a great deal of the space program especially the Apollo program to the moon. I bought my first rocket kits from Century and Estes during those years. Along with my cousins who had a large scale rocket I successfully launched a live mouse hundreds of feet in the air. I had caught him in a storage shed and after his successful flight gave him his freedom at the farm we used as a launch site.
I pursued my pyrotechnic interests as I studied science and then chemistry through high school and college. While I still was interested in pyrotechnics it was quite a few years later when I got my current job at Purdue in 1989 that I really began to expand my understanding and involvement in this area.
My job focused on helping the faculty to present live demonstrations of the chemistry principles they were teaching the students. I often heard the students request to have demonstrations involving fire and explosions. I soon realized that the more I knew about fireworks and pyrotechnics the better prepared I would be to provide demonstrations that exploded or went up in flame. Soon thereafter I went to a seminar about pyrotechnics and heard about the PGI. At that same time I found a local firework display company and joined up with them doing public displays. Later as I got more involved and heard about manufacturing I sent in my info for an ATF license and got that approved.

My first PGI convention was in 2000 and I signed up with the safety team and helped out on the B-line. I really enjoyed helping and watching people launch their shells and took over the role of B-line Boss from a great mentor Dave Pierson. I  continue to assist the new B-line Boss as I serve on the PGI Board holding the office of First Vice President.  This summer my first term will conclude and I am currently running for election to another two year term.

La Porte Convention in review

The first PGI convention in Indiana in over 20 years was a great event.. The 2012 "Fire in the Sky" La Porte, IN convention was successful in many ways.  Attendance was up for the members and good crowds came to all the public displays.  We had a huge group of the members camping and they reported it was a great site for those who camped.

I was able to have my wife, my parents and some extended family attend the Friday night Grand Public Display which was great fun.  They have heard me talk about this for years and now they saw first hand I was not making things up.

An Economic study was done and found that our convention brought 2-3 million dollars of revenue into the La Porte area.  Many of the members told of being thanked by local business personnel of how this was really helping them financially because of our presence and patronage.

The mayor and the committee are very eager for us to return and we will work on a potential return to La Porte County Fairgrounds.  The Fairgrounds know we need more space and are exploring options on how our footprint can be expanded to give us the  necessary distances.  Things have changed to the north in the open shooting area with the building of another inhabited building back there.

I really enjoyed working with the folks at the La Porte County Fairgrounds and the local Convention Visitors Bureau.  They worked hard to make us welcome and helped on a variety issues that come along with doing a pyrotechnic convention at a new site.

We are tentatively scheduled to return to LaPorte in 2016 so there is time to work on making adjustments and improvements so our return visit is an even better time than 2012.

The Transition

This blog started as a means to give voice to my interest in holding office on the Board of Directors for the Pyrotechnics Guild International. I now hold that office of 1st Vice President.

The elections for PGI was in August and the elections  for Mulberry Town Council were held in November. I did not run for the first time in over a decade and Dec 31, 2011 my term expired.

While I enjoyed working with those on the town council, I now find it very rewarding working with the members of the PGI Board.

There are many similarities between these positions. Both boards have 5 members, much of our duties require that one hear from the town members or guild members on their various frustrations over what the board is not doing for them. Whereas with the town council everyone was within a mile radius now the PGI board comes from 5 different states.

The primary focus now for the PGI Board is to bring together all the necessary details for hosting our annual convention at La Porte, IN Aug 11-17, 2012 I will write more about this in the future but I have already found this much more enjoyable than the job of serving on a town council.

For the town council we had regular monthly meetings and occasionally a second meeting per month. With the PGI we have 2 planning meets per year and the weeklong convention with the rest of our communication going on via the phone or email. This works very well for my routine and schedule as I use email constantly and except when sleeping am on-line much of the day 7 days of the week.

I will compare and contrast these board positions in the next post and begin describing the almost indescribable annual PGI Convention.

The theme this year is "Fire in the Sky"!

Leadership is... Part 2

The opportunity to run for 1st VP of the PGI gives me a chance to evaluate how

I choose to lead. For the past 12 years, I have served on the Town Council of

Mulberry, IN. For the past 10 years I have held the office of president. I have decided not to hold the office of president after my term ends this December. Each year the council nominates and elects from the 5 member board a president and vice president and if nominated in 2012 I will decline. My reason stems from learning how other leaders served very effectively, while in leadership, and continued to have a very positive impact as they stepped aside. One book that I found very informative and helpful "Good to Great" by John Collins points out that solid effective leadership continues after that leader no longer holds the lead position. The author Jim Collins reveals the findings of in depth study by his research group of twenty one people who examined over six months all the key details of companies that went from good to great. One of the key elements to these companies impressive growth was their leadership. This type of leader prepares and helps those who will follow after to be ready to take the reins as he or she steps down.

My ten years as town council president are going to end this year by my choice. I believe leadership needs to set goals work to achieve those goals and then step aside. These companies that made the leap from ‘good to great’ had leaders with several distinct characteristics. One of these was “Ambition for the Company: Setting up Successors for Success. While it may seem strange to talk about leaving a position before even being elected, I think this is a fundamental part of good leadership. You build on the hard work of your predecessors, advance the cause while in leadership, and document clearly what you have been doing and communicate this information to those who will be your successors. Then you step away passing the baton to your successor and prepare to enjoy some potential free time.